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Pay Day for the Mullahs

The U.S. makes its first half-billion-dollar payment to the Iranian regime -- and its military.

Iran is receiving $550 million of its frozen oil revenues under the interim nuclear deal the Obama administration has pushed forward with Iran. The United States “helped facilitate the transfer” of the funds to Iran through unnamed foreign banks according to Reuters, citing a U.S. Treasury spokeswoman. Iran’s official IRNA news agency has reported that the $550 million already has been transferred to Iran’s Central Bank account in Switzerland. This transfer is just the first installment of the $4.2 billion of blocked Iranian oil revenues held abroad that the U.S. has committed to help unfreeze.

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," Vladimir Lenin once famously said. The Obama administration is going one step further. It is involved in handing the mullahs money with no strings attached, which they will undoubtedly use for a further military build-up with which to threaten the United States and its allies.

Consider the following chilling words from a top Iran military official, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, as quoted by the Daily Caller on February 1st. He made these remarks during a televised interview:

America, with its strategic ignorance, does not have a full understanding of the power of the Islamic Republic. We have recognized America’s military strategy, and have arranged our abilities, and have identified centers in America [for attack] that will create a shock. We will conduct such a blow in which they [America] will be destroyed from within.

Another top Iranian military official said last month: “Know that a direct conflict with America is the strongest dream of the faithful and revolutionary men around the world.”

Consider that nothing in the interim agreement stops Iran from continuing its research and development of a nuclear triggering device. The money flowing to Iran, as the Obama administration opens the spigot wider and wider, will help pay for it.

Consider too that nothing in the interim agreement stops Iran from continuing to develop or acquire long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles which can reach the United States and Europe, as well as Israel. Indeed, the latest annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community” states that Iran “wants to improve its nuclear and missile capabilities” on which it has already “made technical progress.”

This same intelligence assessment warned of the continued danger that North Korea will remain an exporter of ballistic missiles and nuclear technology to Iran. Nothing in the interim nuclear agreement would hamper Iran’s ability to use the money we are letting loose to purchase nuclear materials or weapons from its buddies in Pyongyang. Instead of oil-for-food, as the fault-ridden program in Iraq was known, the Obama administration is enabling an unfrozen-oil-revenues-for-weapons program.

Among the non-nuclear-related weapons that a senior Iranian Air Force commander just announced Iran is planning to build are semi-heavy and training jets. The announcement was made on February 3rd – the very day the first installment of Iran’s frozen oil revenues was released. The plan to build the jets was sent to senior officials to receive their approval, and “once approved, the Defense Industries will start building them,” the senior Air Force commander, Islamic Republic Air Force Chief Liaison Officer General Aziz Nasirzadeh, said. “We have taken very good measures in producing aircraft ammunition, long-range ammunition and smart missiles,” he added. Now Iran will have more money in its hands to continue to do so.

Iran will also be able to obtain insurance, previously subject to sanctions, for the tankers carrying its crude oil to its remaining major customers in China, India, Japan, Korea, Turkey and Taiwan. This will mean “Iran’s crude oil exports will not decline and our customers will be able to purchase oil from Iran without any anxiety and they will not have to look for alternatives to Iran crude oil,” Ali Majedi, a deputy minister for international affairs and trading explained. And with the lifting of sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical industry as part of the interim agreement, Iran will be able to increase its hard currency revenues from that source as well. Again, Iran will get its hands on more money to pay for further militarization and to fund its mischief in the Middle East and beyond, thanks to the current lifting of sanctions under the interim agreement.

The Intelligence Assessment referenced above describes just some of the mischief that Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are pursuing, in addition to Iran’s continued work on developing a nuclear arms capacity:

Outside of the Syrian theater, Iran and Lebanese Hizballah [Hezbollah] continue to directly threaten the interests of US allies. Hizballah has increased its global terrorist activity in recent years to a level that we have not seen since the 1990s…Iran will continue to act assertively abroad in ways that run counter to US interests and worsen regional conflicts. Iranian officials almost certainly believe that their support has been instrumental in sustaining Assad’s regime in Syria and will probably continue support during 2014 to bolster the regime. In the broader Middle East, Iran will continue to provide arms and other aid to Palestinian groups, Huthi rebels in Yemen, and Shia militants in Bahrain to expand Iranian influence and to counter perceived foreign threats.

In short, the Obama administration and its fellow negotiators of the interim agreement with Iran have sent Iran the first installment of money, with more to come, that Iran will turn around and cheerfully use against us.